From: ESRCs East West Programme [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Serguei A. Oushakine
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 2:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: CFP: D.A. Prigov’s Art: Verbal – Visual - Performative (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, November 4 - 7, 2012)

Call for Papers: D.A. Prigov’s Art:  Verbal – Visual - Performative

The Prigov Foundation, the Prigov Laboratory at the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow), and the Department of Contemporary Art of the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia) invite scholars and graduate students in all fields of humanities and Russian Studies to participate in a three-day international conference:

The conference is dedicated to the opening of the Dmitri A. Prigov’s permanent exhibition as part of the Contemporary Art Department of the State Hermitage Museum.

Тhe conference’s time and place:  the Hermitage (St. Petersburg), November 4 - 7, 2012.

Dmitrii Aleksandrovich Prigov (1940-2007), is one of the most important figures in the Russian underground culture of the 1970s-80s who effectively continued his artistic experiments into the post-Soviet period as well, coming to be seen by many as the leading practitioner and theoretician of Russian postmodernism. Having begun his artistic career in the early 1970s as one of representatives of the non-conformist Moscow Conceptualist circle of artists, writers and theoreticians, since the period of Perestroika, Prigov participated in many exhibits , sang in the opera, collaborated with musicians, published four books of prose and wrote thousands of poetic texts and numerous theoretic manifestoes. The opening of Prigov’s permanent exhibition at the Hermitage certainly implies a greater focus on his visual works, however, conference participants are encouraged to tackle a broader spectrum of subjects, including but not limited to the following:

Prigov’s multi-media project: its philosophical foundations and evolution Prigov’s art in the context of the late soviet cultural underground Prigov’s art in the context of post-soviet contemporary art Prigov’s oeuvre in the context of action and performance art.

Prigov’s art in the context of Western neo-avantgarde and postmodernism.

The interaction of the verbal and visual in Prigov’s oeuvre.

Performativity as the central category of Prigov’s aesthetics.

Prigov and the transformations of Moscow Conceptualism.

The mystical and parodic in Prigov’s oeuvre, “New sincerity” as an artistic problem and challenge.

Gesamtkunstwork in contemporary culture: Prigov’s version.

The conference will also include a presentation of a 5-volume edition of Prigov’s collected works published by the NLO Press.

The conference’s working languages are Russian and English.

Please send your paper topic, abstract (no more than 500 words), and a brief (max. 4 pp.) CV by July 1, 2012 to [log in to unmask].

The Prigov Foundation will cover the participants’ roundtrip travel fare and lodging expenses.